He found a TGX ST-11 with amp for $160 delivered.....

anyone know anything about this shizzle???

 

no rizzle my bizzle but I'll sell you a barely used 3/4 scale classical acoustic for half that :0 electric guitars are for sissy boys! kumbaya kumbaya

 

i was happy with my fender mexican strat as a first guitar. $300 new + $180 for a fender bullet amp.

 

This is what I started on:

http://www.amazon.com/Strat-Solid-Electric...74270210&sr=1-1

Has everything you need. When I bought it was just the "strat pack" not the "fat strat pack". Guess they're trying to get in with the youth of today and their obesity epidemic or something.

 

do you think that is worth the extra $ over this?

http://www.guitarimports.com/st11-elec-package.htm

I have a feeling my son will play this about 3 times unfort..... but maybe he will love this??????.... I am trying to find the best thing for the best price....

 

take him to a store, have him play ( or at least monkey around with them ) and find one he feels comfortable on. All necks are differant, so you should find him one that fits his hand comfortably. Don't go too cheap, cuz if you buy a piece of shit, he'll be more apt to give it up.

and as I say every time.. have the guitar set up before you take it home, which means setting the string height, intonation, etc. it will go a long way to making the instrument more playable.... and I guess on the cheaper scale, if they guy says he can't set it properly, then it's too cheap.

I remember when I asked for a guitar when I was a little kid, my dad bitched none stop saying I would play it for week then put it in the closet, my mom finally caved, and 25 years later I still play everday!

 

Well..

I don't really know enough about the one you linked to make that decision, but the Squier guitar in the pack I linked to is actually a pretty good guitar. Squier is Fender's beginner (or cheapie) line, so you are getting a very similar product compared to an actual fender strat. It's just made of cheaper parts & materials, and thus doesn't sound as good or play as well in the hand of an experienced musician.

In the hands of a noob, such as myself, it really makes no difference. I tried the Squier followed by the Fender and heard no difference at all since I'm terrible anyway

If your son plays it 3x then it's a waste of $$. If he actually picks it up, then I think it's worth the extra $$.

Are you getting him lessons or something? I think just plopping a guitar in his hands will make him more discouraged than inspired. It's really hard to get started without some sort of direction.

 

that's the key right there! haha...and FWIW, i was glad i bought myself a regular strat rather than a squier for my first guitar. it allowed me to delay a little bit from upgrading to my next guitar (gibson sg! ). though honestly, i don't remember why i didn't like the squier...it's been like almost 10 years now.

the other suggestion of going into a music store is also a good one. i got mine at guitar center. sam ash is similar, and i'm sure there are second-hand stores in your area as well.

 

I am glad I started this thread. I think the first thing we need to do is go to a guitar store that we have a relationship with vs buying on the internet. Like Mindcore said, that will get him the right size / tuned / etc... and if something happens to it we can get it worked on.....

He is in 5th grade and has played the Viola (we aren't even asian..ahahha) for this year.... he wants to stop that and go with Guitar....Not sure if they have classes in school but we found some stuff on our Cable that is free and he may take lessons if the other plans don't work out.

I hate to discourage kids, but he really wanted an IPOD for x-mas and has probably used it 8 times total.... This is his $ for the Guitar so I am hoping he is going to be into it.....

 

Going to the local store is definitely a good idea.

I go to a little place in my area where all the guys are really cool. They were the ones that sold me the Strat Pack and told me if I really do outgrow it quickly, and want to upgrade to a fender, they would buy it back from me if I would put the credit towards a new strat. This is the same place I took lessons.

Really the nice thing about the pack is that it comes with everything you need. All that extra stuff does add up pretty quickly when bought separately.

It's funny you mention the ipod. I thought I couldn't live without one as well and bought it. After realizing I've used it 4x in the last 6 months, I sold it on Ebay and used that money to buy my guitar!